A New Beginning
by Blaze88188
Summary: The New Narnia is missing something and is therefore not complete. Aslan recreates Narnia in hopes of getting back what was once loved. However, the absence of government has put Narnia under seige, and it's up to five siblings to take Narnia back.
1. The Escape

**The Chronicles of Narnia**

The New Beginning

Prologue 

Narnia… where the sea is calm, peaceful and a beautiful blue… where the forests are emerald green and are as living as you and me… and where a new journey always begins.

Twenty-one thousand years ago, in old Narnian time, (70 years in Earth time), King Tirian, Jill the Keen, Eustace of the Dawn Treader, and all the creatures of the world went through a door to the true Narnia, which had the true Narnia of the past on top of a hill. They all went there with High King Peter, King Edmund, Queen Lucy, Lord Digory, and Lady Polly. When they arrived there, they got the news that their real bodies in England had died in a terrible train accident.

But what they didn't know is that when Aslan told them this, the door way had been closed forever, only to be opened by him. One hundred years past and there was no old Narnia. But Aslan grew to find that there was still something missing; something important to the old Narnia that was lacking in the Real Narnia. This feeling didn't make them unhappy, just a piece of them was missing, and most of the creatures could feel it. In reality, the emptiness had been there for centuries. Aslan saw this, and he decided to take action.

Aslan went to the Old Narnia and saw that it was still just a dark ocean. But one thing caught his eye. It was a single tower of Cair Paravel that was enchanted to stay visible and stay standing no matter what happened, and Aslan was the one who made this enchantment, (only he can remove it, which he didn't intend to).

The tower had a single banner on it. It was a picture of Aslan on the banner. Aslan ran across the water and within a blink of an eye, he was there. He stood for a moment to remember when he first put the enchantment on it. It is impossible to get in the tower, though, unless you are Aslan, or you are sent there by Aslan. He admired how it still shown like the sun (which was gone) was beating down on it. Aslan bit his foot so five drops of blood fell upon the tower.

Then, he shed five tears, and then five more drops of blood, then five more tears. Five because it represented the future of Narnia. Then, after about five minutes of this, he stopped bleeding and stopped crying. He stuck out his paw over the tower and gave a gigantic roar. This roar was nothing you have heard or read about. It was deafening but soft and it was terrible but sweet.

At that moment a giant figure arose from the water and threw his staff across the ocean. He then caught it as it came back to him, and then he threw it in the air. When it came back down to him, he caught it, and then sank back down deep, deep inside the black water. It that moment of his departure, a magnificent beam of light shown, shining to the tower, and the sun appeared along with the moon. There was a rumble and then star came shooting from out of the water in to the sky. Then, after that, the half of the ocean arose into the sky, and the rest went back into its place as the Great Eastern Ocean. Now, what you could see was the ocean and a wasteland of nothing.

Aslan roared again, and a figure arose from the ground. This figure had female characteristics, but walked with the grace of an angel. She clapped her hands, and became a grand tree. From the spot she arose shot up a large street light. The giant trees roots spread throughout all the land, and the land became full of life. Then he roared one more time. At that, the doors of the old Narnia came open, all the creatures filled into the land where they originally lived. They were given no recollection of the old Narnia, but still seemed satisfied. The land was exactly how it was before the end. Aslan saw this and was pleased; he knew no one would be unhappy in his land, but everyone needed to be there to be happy. Satisfied, Aslan disappeared.

After that, the animals lived on there own until about fifty years later. The Calormens took over Narnia, but only for land purposes. Most Narnian humans were taken as slaves back to Calormen. The animals, however, stayed, most forming their own colonies, ignoring the ruling of Calormen. This is what it had been for another one hundred years, until a promise thought to be broken came to truth, and a new adventure began.

**--Chapter One--**

The Escape

There it sat. A white mansion on top of a tall hill. Although it looked nice on the outside, it was cruel on the inside. If you were to go inside, you would see that it was like any other house, but bigger. But there was a secret in that house. Actually, there were one hundred secrets in that house. There, in the house, through secret hallways and doors, lived one hundred orphans who were legally bought by their 'mom' who was the owner of the mansion. The owner was not that lovely, and she was not at all beautiful. She was cruel to the orphans, and treated them like slaves. They slaves didn't even know her name, so they called her Owner, and nothing else. The only orphans she liked were about five of them, and they were the ones that sucked up to her a lot.

But in that house, there lived five even bigger secrets. Five orphans who didn't know that they were important or special. Besides the slave work they got from Owner, they got ridicule from all the other orphans, and this is why. Every orphan there never knew his or her parents, so they swore that if someone was there that knew who their parents were, and were old enough to get a lot of ridicule, then they would give them a hard time. They would threaten them and say if they didn't do things like some of their chores, then they would have to do something, but they never explained what.

Not all of the one hundred orphans were bad. For one thing, fifty-two of them were under twelve years old. The rest were in between sixteen and twelve years old and all of them were above the age of six. At that time, there were only five unlucky orphans who knew their parents, and so those five got all the work and ridicule. They were all brothers and sisters. There was Austin the oldest, and Laura his younger twin They were both fourteen years old, and they both had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, and Austin had partly curly, partly wavy hair, and Laura had straight hair. Then next in line was Eric and his younger twin Megan. Eric had short, straight, blonde hair and Megan, who was taller than Eric my three inches, had long, straight, orange hair. They were both thirteen. Then, the last person of the five, who was eleven years old, was Michael. He had short, straight, brown hair. Now that I have described the characters, the adventure can begin.

It was a rainy day. There was huge storm clouds over the mansion and over the lake it sat by, and since it was a rainy day, all of the orphans had less work to do. The five excluded orphans sat in their attic of a room. It was hard to find because, first of all, you would have to go through this door on the main floor that led to a staircase. Then, at the top, you would arrive at a hallway. Then you would have to walk all the way down that hallway into a door. In that door would lead you to a small square-loop hallway that lead you to a door. Inside the door, there was a big storage room filled with nothing but boxes and a single wardrobe in the bottom left corner, (for the door was on the bottom right corner). The wardrobe had been there for a long time. All that the kids knew about it was that Owner bought it from an auction in England. It was from some professor that died in a train accident. Then, after Owner bought it, she brought it back to America, but found no use for it because it had faux fur coats in it, so she put it here in the storage room. In the upper left corner of the room, there was a closet, and in that closet was more boxes, except for a small ladder in the right corner.

If you were to climb up that ladder, you would get to a door on the ceiling, and if you opened it and went inside, you would find a staircase. This staircase was made of wood, but had red carpeting on it. At the top of the staircase and to your right, there was a long room with two beds and an old typewriter. In the middle of the top wall, there was a door, and that door led to the girls bedroom with a single bed, a crib (I don't know why), and a desk with a mirror.

Laura was sitting on her bed in the middle of her and Megan's room, knitting. Megan was on the other side of the bed, reading a book about a boy and a girl who go to a strange land and meet a lion there. Austin had already read that book and the books that went along with it. Megan thought it was good but fake, but Austin thought that it might have happened, though he did doubt it sometimes. Austin was sitting on the bigger bed, at the end of the room, (he and Eric shared that bed), looking out the window. They were four stories up from the ground, so he had a pretty good view, but all he could see was the rain coming down from the sky. Eric was sitting with Michael on Michael's bed, both of them talking about what they were going to do that day. Michael's bed was off to the right of the room. An hour passed, and the kids were still doing what they were doing before until Megan lost control.

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!" she yelled out of nowhere.

"Can't take what?" said Austin, turning away from the window.

"I can't take being stuck up in here when we could be out and about!" she replied.

"That's what we were saying," said Michael.

"You know what I say?" asked Eric. "I say we go and pull pranks on people!"

"You know what I say?" asked Laura. "I say…no."

"Oh come on!" continued Eric. "Why not? They always pester us! And besides, it beats staying up here doing nothing!"

"I'm usually the responsible one," said Austin, "but in this case I'm going to have to agree with him. He has a point. It _does_ beat staying up here all day."

"I second that!" said Michael.

"But what if Owner hinds out, huh?" replied Laura. "What would we do? I'm not getting kicked out to the streets. It's bad enough here."

"Yes, but in the streets we'd have freedom!" answered Megan.

"So is it settled?" asked Eric.

"To me it is," replied Austin. He stuck his hand, in a fist, out, "for us!" he said.

"For fun!" said Eric as he put his fist in.

"For freedom!" said Megan, (but of course all of this is something weird to say just for a prank).

"For better or for worse!" said Michael as he put his fist in.

"For nothing," said Laura unenthusiastically as she threw her hand on top of their fists.

"Woohoo!" all of them except Laura yelled.

"I hate do be a 'party pooper', but um, what are we going to do?" asked Laura.

"I don't know," said Austin, "but we'll think of something." And at that they were gone.

They all went down to the main floor to find some victims for their prank. They played a couple of pranks on some people, and Eric played one that involved him, a boy named Justin, and a small flight of stairs (mean huh?) Anyways, Eric just had to play a final prank, and that was to pour a mixture of freezing cold water and mud on a person who walked through the door, but he had to make sure it was a boy named Ty. They all disagreed with him, especially after he pushed one kid down a couple of stairs, (but of course, he was alright.) Eric went to get Ty, then quickly ran into the room, hung the bucket parallel to the door so the when someone opened the door it would tip the bucket over. Then after assembling the bucket, they quick ran and hid behind a dusty old couch in a room that was never used.

There were footsteps, and then the doorknob turned, and the door opened. The kids held their breath as they heard an "AHHHHHHHH!" They all got up to look, but found what something that would chill your spine. There was Owner, wet and muddy, glaring at them, and one of her suck up assistant in the doorway gazing down at Owner with horror. They stared at each other for a while until Owner yelled "GET THEM!" and they all took off, the kids running through a second door, and Owner and her assistant running right after them.

They all ran all the way up through the secret doors and up all those secret stairs, but when they got to the top of the stairs the lead to the square loop, Austin, who was last, knocked over a table with a vase of dead flowers and an empty chest on it, and it rolled down the stairs (and obviously, the vase shattered.) The kids ran to the room with all the boxes, but they had to stop.

"We have nowhere to turn!" said Austin. "Even with the table distraction, we may not have enough time to get to our rooms, and even if we do, we'll have nowhere to turn!"

"I knew this was a bad idea!" said Laura. "You just had to pull a last prank! I bet Justin told Ty not to go in, put to tell Owner to go in so whatever was going to happen was going to happen to her!"

"Look! I'm Sorry! I…" but Eric couldn't finish because there was footsteps coming.

"Quick!" said Megan. "Into the wardrobe! It's our only chance!" and so at that, they all ran into the wardrobe, first Laura, then Megan, then Michael, then Eric, and last was Austin, closing the wardrobe tight, (and yes, it is foolish to lock yourself in a wardrobe, but that was the least on his mind.) He shut it just in time, because, he didn't know this, but a second later after he closed it Owner and her assistant charged in, and Owner yelled, "SEARCH EVERWHERE!" and they both began searching. In the wardrobe, they kept moving back until something happened. Michael, (who, remember, was in the middle of the group), stumbled over a coat that was on the floor, and fell back. He knocked Megan and Laura back as well, and grabbed Eric for support, but then Eric fell. There was no thud, just a ruffling noise.

"You guys?" asked Austin, who was still standing. "Are you alright?" he was worried, so he walked farther in the wardrobe with his hands out, until he wasn't in a mess of coats anymore.


	2. Out of the Wardrobe

--Chapter 2--

--Chapter 2--

Out of the Wardrobe

Austin stepped out of the wardrobe to find three things. One was that all his siblings were lying on the ground staring in different directions. Second, there was light from the sun beating down on his face from a clear blue sky. And third, he was in a forest, and farther a ahead of him, he could see parts of a lantern, but only parts because the lantern was behind some Evergreen trees, and the branches were blocking the full view of the lantern.

"Impossible!" said Laura in an awing voice.

"Are we outside of the mansion?" asked Megan.

"I don't think so," answered Austin, "it was a rainy spring day outside, but know it is a very hot and sunny day, and there is an only a couple of bleach-white clouds in the air."

"This is too weird!" said Megan.

"This is cool!" said Eric.

"What happened?" asked Laura.

"Well," said Michael, taking off the coat that was wrapped around his ankle, "I stepped on this coat and got tangled in it, then fell back and knocked over Megan and Laura, then grabbed Eric and we all fell together."

"Well, I know a lot about clothing and making the clothes and stuff," said Laura, picking the brown coat up, she and Austin were on their feet, the rest were still on the ground, "and it seems that this coat was damaged by a lot of water, like it got thrown into a river."

"Okay," said Eric, who wasn't very interested in clothes, "what does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing," replied Laura, "I just thought I'd point it out."

"I think the bigger question is what are we going to do now?!" stated Austin.

"That's true," said Megan, "we don't know where we are, and we don't know what to do."

"Should we go back through the wardrobe thingy?" asked Michael.

"No!" replied Austin, "not unless you want your head bitten off my Owner!"

"Or sucked off by her assistant!" added Eric, and everyone laughed at that. (If you don't get the joke, then go to a school where they teach a class on jokes, like my school.)

"I vote no about going through the wardrobe," said Laura.

"Me too, but then what are we to do?" asked Michael.

"Well, shall we have a look around?" asked Austin.

"Why not?" said Eric, "Anything would be better then going back!" And so at that, they all decided to have a look around.

They all proceeded on, Austin in the front, and the rest in a group behind him. They went forward about fifty feet to the evergreens. Austin spread them apart, and then walked through the space and looked about. There, right in front of them, was a grand lantern. It was as tall was an oak tree and had emerald-green vines wrapped around it. Just the sight of it made you feel safe, at home, and comfortable, so comfortable that you would fall asleep there if you weren't eager to find out more about your surroundings. They all sat there for a moment or two, awing at the lantern.

"Shall we continue?" asked Laura, who, by now, was more into the adventure and was much more mellowed down.

"Why not?" said Austin still gazing at the lantern.

"Okay, seriously!" said Laura, becoming more impatient, and totally missing why they were staring at the lantern. "It's a lantern! It may be beautiful, but it's just a lantern! We don't even know if we are on the earth, and you guys are looking at a lantern!"

"Chill out!" said Eric.

"We're going we're going!" said Megan.

"Good," said Laura more calmly. They all left the lantern, Laura leading the way, acting like she's knows her way around, and like she's been there before. As a matter of fact, they all felt like they had been there before.

"It may just be me," said Megan, "but it feels like I've been here before, but I'm very new to this place."

"I know what you mean," replied Austin, "we know absolutely nothing about this place, but yet I recognize it."

"Yeah," said Michael, "I know."

"I don't." Said Eric, "what _do _you mean?"

"Well," answered Austin, "I had a dream once, and, we were all kings and queens, and we went in the clouds and jumped from one to the next, and then Eric rolled over and hit me in the face, then I woke up. But after that I had the same dream, but Owner was Queen and we were servants, and then I woke up, and found that it was true."

"Well duh," said Laura, "I wouldn't be surprised if you dreamt that when you were day dreaming while doing your chores, oh, I don't know when."

"If I had a castle," stated Megan, "it would be on an island, and it would be orange and have a big garden and a big … WHOA!" Megan wasn't watching where she was going, so she fell right into the bank of a river.

"Are you okay!?" asked Laura, running over to Megan.

"I'm fine, just a little wet," she said, scrambling up on her feet.

"We should give a name to this place," said Michael. Now they were all standing on the river bank, watching the water.

"We should!" said Eric, "how about Ericland?"

"How about, no!" said Megan, pushing Eric down.

"How about Wardrobie or Lanternia?" suggested Michael.

"Now those are just pathetic names!" said Megan.

"Well, it's like naming a baby, it's hard because it has so many different qualities that makes it who it is," said Laura.

"And," continued Austin, "we just discovered it, and it may be inhabited!" By now they were away from the river and walking through some thick thicket. They kept on walking, and throwing out names for the new land, but, there were two things that they didn't notice. One was that there, in that new land, they were able to walk faster and longer distances without getting very tired. The other thing was that they didn't notice someone (or something for that matter) was following them. They were following the river and still throwing out names when Eric heard a sound. At first he ignored it until he heard it the second time. He mentioned it to Megan, who didn't hear it, then to Michael, who also didn't hear anything. But when he told Austin, Austin said that he too heard a sound, but thought that it was one his siblings behind him. Now normally when a group goes into a forest, no one wants to be at the back, especially when it is dark, but since it was mid afternoon, and it wasn't a thick forest, so the sun would shine through. Not one of them minded being at the back, half because of what I just said, and half because they were to busy awing madly at the new land that they didn't even bother to think about anything else.

They walked in silence for a while until all of them now heard the noise, and it was near. It wasn't a loud scary noise, (much like a noise in a movie where they would play scary music), but it was enough to scare the life out of the kids because they didn't know what there was in this vast country.

They all turned around, waiting for what ever was coming at there. The sound stopped and the kids all started to feel that it was safe until…

"Now, what might you young ones be doing here?" said a high squeaky voice. All they kids jumped, but didn't dare to turn around.

"Now, don't be afraid," said the voice, "I'm just here because a bird told me he saw five kids come out of nowhere." All five kids turned around to find nothing in front of them, but two feet below their faces. It was a grey rat with a sword.

"May I ask who you are?" asked Austin after a moment of silence. Austin figured that the animal was nice, so he took his chances and said something.

"The names Reepicheep." Said Reepicheep. "Well, actually, Reepicheep the Tenth, but you can call me Reepicheep or Reep."

"Okay, um, Reep." Said Austin, "I'm Austin, and these are my two sisters Megan and Laura, and these are my two brothers, Eric and Michael," he pointed at each person as he said their name.

"Well, I guess we'll have to go back to Barruffle's house and see what we can do about you," replied Reep. He turned around and started to walk back into the thicket.

"Wait a minute," said Laura, "who is the 'Barruffle' character?"

"Why, he's a Dwarf," said Reep who didn't turn around when he said this.

"A dwarf?" asked Laura, "and are there fairies and giants here as well?" she said, snickering at her disbelief.

"Well," answered Reep, "not here. There are some giants up in the Wild Lands of the North which include the territories of Ettinsmoor, Harfang, and Galmarie, and there are no fairies that I know of in any land, but there are pixies here and in Archenland."

"Where are all of these places?" asked Austin who was interested in world geography. "I've never heard of such places."

"Well," said Reep, "wherever _you_ come from must be some place with out magic and Talking Beasts either. The Wild Lands of the North obviously border us to the north, with its territory of Ettinsmoor. Above Ettinsmoor is Harfang. The territory of Galmarie borders them to the west, and borders us to the northwest. Archenland borders us to the south. I might as well tell you that Telmar borders us to the west, and the Bight of Calormen, which is part of the Great Eastern Ocean, borders us to the east. Anymore questions?" he said in a frustrated tone.

"A few," said Megan, stressing him out even more.

"What?" he snapped.

"Well," said Austin, "probably the most obvious and common question, where in the world are we?"

"Oh! Of Course! Sorry about that! We are in the greatest land in the world! NARNIA!" replied Reep sounding more excited, like energy and bravery filled him just because he was saying the name of a country.

"What world?" mumbled Eric to Austin as Austin gave him a shrug.

"Next question," said Megan. "Why were you in a hurry to get us to, um, Bargwaffle's house?"

"I think you mean 'Barruffle and because, as grand as Narnia might seem, there are some forces in Narnia that aren't so great at all. We aren't in a very good situation with Calormen, a large country south of Archenland, and half of the animals want to become 'independent' and make territories and/or countries of their own for their own species. The birds that are still on Narnia's side and Aslan's side have spotted Calormen soldiers along the border of Narnia and Archenland and in the mountains of Archenland as well. Again, no where is really safe." Reep ended with a depressing sigh.

On their right, the river had gone into a rapid and the sound of the rapids was both soothing but energizing. They all went through a vast thicket and came out to be on the top of a knoll, which the proceeded down until Michael interrupted the silence.

"Who is Aslan?" None of the kids, except for him, were paying attention to that name. They all just thought he was another dwarf or a giant or something like that, but now that the question came up, they were curious about him, and wanted to meet him and ask him some questions about Narnia and some questions on how to get home.

"Aslan," said Reep, "is the very creature that brought you here I assume. He is the one that created this world anew again you know. This world already ended and we were as happy as could be in the New Narnia, but we had trouble adjusting and there was still turmoil in the New Narnia, so Aslan decided it was best that we make world piece here in Old Narnia, or none of us would be able to enter the New Narnia."

They were now off the knoll and were walking through rough prairie grass that was up to their knees. After that question was asked, the kids asked other questions like what river they were by, or what forest they were in, or what time was it? Reepicheep responded in the usual tone answering all their questions, (they asked them almost at the same time, so Reep had no time to answer them.)

"The Great River, Lantern Waste, and it's about noon," he answered, "now can we please be quiet! We're coming out of Lantern Waste into 'dwarf territory'. If any dwarf that isn't on our side sees you, we'll have to flee to the hills of southern Narnia and make our way to Cair Paravel from there. They went over a brae and when they got to the top, there was no more trees, and you could see a small distance away. At the bottom of the brae, about fifty feet away from it, was a pile of mud so packed down that it looked like a brownish-black rock. They approached the rock and Reep gave it a little knock.

"I live in dwarf kingdom today," said Reep.

"What was that?" asked Michael.

"Secret code," whispered Reep. The door of the swung open to reveal a dwarf with a brown beard wearing an aqua shirt, black pants, and a green hat.

"Hello Reep," he said, but it wasn't very welcoming on the count that we sounded worried. "Who are they?"

"These are um, well, kids with names I don't remember."

"Let me introduce us," said Austin. "This is Eric, Michael, Megan, and Laura, and I'm Austin."

"Well how about we get into the house before anyone sees us," said Barruffle. Everyone followed him into the house. If you were to walk in, forward and a little to the right would be a fire place. To the left would be a kitchen with pots and pans in a clutter. To the right, the room would stretch out. In the middle, right in front of the fire place, was a round table with four seats. Against the back wall, next to the window, was a maroon chair. And at the end of the room, there was a hammock, which Barruffle slept on. Barruffle sat on his hammock, Reepicheep sat on the chair, Austin stood by the fire place (which wasn't lit) and the rest of the kids sat at the table.

"We have come to talk to you about getting these five to Cair Paravel," started Reep, "we need to get them there so they can hopefully settle the civil war here in Narnia and settle some other things just to begin with."

"Just to begin with!?" yelled Megan out of nowhere.

"All we were trying to do was escape Owner!" said Laura, "we didn't expect to save a whole country!" The Dwarf and the Mouse raised their eyebrows at this.

"My sister's right," said Austin, "we didn't agree to anything."

"I think we would've been better off just wondering around here by ourselves!" said Eric.

"I don't think so," said Barruffle with a chuckle, "the other Dwarfs would have picked you off faster then you can say 'Aslan'!"

"Wait a minute!" said Michael "isn't a country supposed to be run by a king or queen or something like that?" He brought up an interesting point. The Dwarf and Mouse paused for a moment.

"Well," said Reep, "the last King we had in Narnia are in the New Narnia."

"Yeah," continued Barruffle, "we haven't had a king or queen for five hundred years."

"Yes," said Reep, "and as you know, the animals tried to handle it, but we ended up in a Civil War. We have nowhere to turn!"

"You mean we _had_ nowhere to turn," corrected Barruffle.

"Yes," admitted Reep, "and that's where you kids come in…"

"Come in where!?" asked Megan, confused and angry.

"Can we please get to the point!?" said Eric.

"Please!?" begged Michael, "this is a little boring."

"GUYS!" yelled Austin, "SHUT-UP! Let them finish!"

"Thank you," said Barruffle.

"Like I was saying," said Reep, "that's where you kids come in. We have to take you to Cair Paravel and get you to settle this Civil War and settle some other wars with other countries."

"OTHER COUNTRIES?!" yelled Megan losing her cool, which happens a lot.

"Well we are also at war with Terebinthia and Telmar," stated Barruffle with a bit of a growl.

"How did you get to war with them?" asked Laura.

"We won't talk now," said Reep, "we're going to eat lunch, then you guys can go do whatever you really feel like, then we'll sleep on it. Got it?"

"Yes," said all of the kids.

"You'll sleep on this big blanket," said Barruffle. He laid out a big blanket on the floor and gave each of the kids a blanket. "Now let's eat!"


	3. Discovered

--Chapter Three--

--Chapter Three--

Discovered

They stuffed themselves with turkey, mashed potatoes, and something that was unidentified to the kids so they didn't bother eating it. After supper, (for it took them most of the afternoon to walk to Barruffle's house), Reep said that they could explore a little, but to not go far; this was dwarf country. If the dwarfs saw them, they would get chased out, captured, or possibly killed.

They all went out of the house and went back into the forest near the river and took a quick swim. Then they went hiking on the other side of the river. They were having a good time, one because this place seemed friendly and two, for all they cared, (and for all anyone cared back home), they could stay here with Barruffle and Reep. Of course they would have to go back sometime because a life of a mouse even in Narnia was short, and the kids knew it. They knew they couldn't stay with the animals forever because they too would pass away someday.

"This is someplace isn't it!?" exclaimed Austin in astonishment as they got to the top of a knoll across the river. Now they had the compete view of the valley. They saw the hill by Barruffle's house that sloped up to the river. To their right the river slope down a hill, creating rapids. Across the large valley they saw a distant house or two, but that was it. Behind them, the way they were going, was trees, trees, and more trees.

"It's very peaceful," said Laura awing at the view. In fact all of them were awing at the view.

"Should we carry on?" asked Megan after about two minutes of silence.

"Why not? We have nothing better to do," answered Eric.

"_And_ I want to see the rest of this forest," said Michael quietly.

"That's very true," replied Megan, "we have nothing better to do, and it will be fun."

"Then it's settled," exclaimed Austin. At that, they continued on their hike through the forest pointing out interesting things. After an hour of following the river, (the trees continued along the rivers, but the rest was prairie), Megan had found a small diamond, Laura had found a arrow, Austin had found an amber with a petrified beetle in it, and Eric had found something as well, but he refused to tell them until they got back to the hut because he wanted to tell Reepicheep and Barruffle at the same time.

After a while of walking along the river, they decided to leave the river where it met another river, called the Snowy River, and go to the prairie to the south. They walked through the grass. It was greener and less sharper then the Dwarf Country grass. They passed a creek and a thicket before climbing a hill that gave them a better view of the whole prairie.

The prairie was related to the prairie on the other side of the river, it was just greener. They walked down the hill into the prairie. On the top of the hill they could see that there were no houses like the dwarfs, but they could also tell that hit was more populated then on the other side of the river. They kept on walking, but they were still cautious. They walked up and down hills, jumping at the top of them to see if they could see across the prairie, but most of the time it failed. They kept walking at a slow pace, not knowing where they were going and not knowing if they wanted to go far. After a while of walking and seeing nothing but trees of Lantern Waste to their left, the Great River in the distance to their right, and nothing but prairie, Austin finally said something.

"I'm getting bored, and so are the rest of us Eric, so why don't you show us what you found."

"Fine." Eric pulled out a rock shaped piece of gold with the imprint of two triangles making diamond with a dot in the middle.

"That's really cool!" said Laura walking over to Eric. She took the gold out of his hands and examined it more closely.

"Where did you find that again?" asked Austin.

"Back by the river. It was stuck in a tree."

"Stuck in a tree? What kind of gold gets an alien print on it and gets stuck in a tree!?" asked Megan.

"This one I guess," replied Michael.

"Well, why don't we carry on for just a little more. It's getting dark and we don't want to be here when it's dark," said Austin. "We don't know what lurks here."

"I say we go on," said Laura, "I want to see this place and seeing it is much better then reading it, if there are any books on it."

"Then lets go!" said Michael. They walked further on going up and down little knolls. They came to a creek and sat and talked for a bit then decided to go back. They stood up and started walking, but then someone or something spoke to them.

"And who might you be?" asked the voice. Getting used to the surprising voices, they spun around and saw a beaver swimming in the creek.

"Um," stammered Austin.

"Um. What an odd name! But is that all of you youngster's names?"

"No," said Laura, "what my brother meant was that our names are Austin, Laura, Megan, Eric, and Michael." She pointed at her siblings and herself when she said the correct names.

"Oh I get it now," said the beaver. "My name is Harold, but you may call me Hal."

"Hello. Hi. What's up? Yo," said all the kids.

"Excuse me, um, Hal, aren't you afraid of getting attacked by dwarfs for being in Dwarf Country?" asked Austin.

"Dwarf Country? No. This isn't Dwarf Country, this is Beast Country. This is where all the animals live in peace. Why? Where did you come from?"

"Well," started Eric, "I'm pretty sure all mammals come from the same place. It's called the mother's stomach and…"

"I know that!" spat Hal, "I meant where you were before you crossed the river into Beast Country!"

"Oh…" said Eric.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you were in Dwarf Country. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"Okay." A sudden gust of chilly wind swept across the prairie. "How about I bring you to the town?"

"That would be fine, but we have to get back to the hut before it gets dark," stated Austin.

"Fair enough," said Hal. They walked forward for a while then turned sharply right at a big rock.

"Why is everyone sneaking up on us?" asked Eric.

"I don't know…" said Austin.

"I don't know if we could trust half of the people we meet," said Laura.

"So what's so different in Beast Country?" asked Megan.

"Well for one thing, it's bigger, and most of the beasts are still loyal to Narnia."

"So why do you live separate from Narnia then?" asked Michael.

"Because the dwarf would attack us," replied Hal.

"So how far is Beast Country?" asked Megan.

"From the river to the mountains to the west, the ones that form the border between Narnia and Telmar, and the Narnia River that to the south of us.

"What other "countries" are there within Narnia?" asked Austin.

"Well," Hal stopped for a moment and thought, "there's one more. There's forest country. Forest Country is a big forest area between the River Rush, the Great River, the Great Eastern Ocean, and a hilly region south of the forest near Archenland, but in Narnia. It's called the Archenland Hills, and actually there's another hilly region in Archenland called the Archenland Hills. Those hills are along the ocean cost of Archenland. Otherwise the rest of the country is still Narnia."

"So," recited Austin, "the southern border, along with a big area in the south west, and all of the central, north central, and north east is still Narnia?"

"Well," replied Hal, "it's still all Narnia, but yeah."

"So where is this 'town' and what is it called?" asked Eric.

"The town is a little bit up farther, and it doesn't really have a name, so we call it Terrain."

From then on they didn't say anything until Terrain was in sight. When it was, the kids didn't recognize it as a town at all. It had a bunch of mounds and trees. The only way that they could decipher it from the prairie around it was that it had two paths. One going north and south, the one they were heading towards, and one that ran east and west.

"There it is!" exclaimed Hal. He picked up his pace to a jog. The kids jogged close behind him not wanting to fall behind.

"I don't see anything but hills, trees, and two paths!" said Michael.

"That's the town! We aren't like dwarves; we don't live in huts and tents! We live where our habitat is, whether it's in a tree, underground, or personally my favorite, in a dam."

"It looks kind of depressing if you ask me," said Laura, "it looks bare, bare with dead grass."

"Well I don't know where you came from, so I don't know what you're talking about," stated Hal. "There are four urban areas in Narnia. The biggest in population, second biggest in size is Beaversdam. After that it's Beruna, which is vise versa to Beaversdam. Then there's the town around Cair Paravel, and that's just called Cair Paravel. Then there a town at the top of Glasswater, which is a long narrow bay of the ocean. That town is called Glasswater, and you can probably see why."

When they arrived at the outskirts of Terrain, they stopped to take a brake; Hal quick ate a couple of berries. After the brake they went to the center of Terrain. You really wouldn't be able to tell that it was the center of anything, except for the fact that there were two paths joining together in the 'middle' of Terrain making a cross. They all stopped to sit on and around a rock towards the middle of Terrain.

"So look around. This is Terrain."

"I see nothing," said Megan with a bland sigh.

"Look harder!" suggested Hal enthusiastically.

"Still don't see it," said Megan.

"I think I just saw something move!" exclaimed Michael, pointing to a bump in the ground about fifty feet in front of them.

"Ah, so I see you've spotted a house, a fox's den to be exact. Now look even closer." The kids looked hard, with the exception of Megan staring at the sky and only occasionally looking around, but they couldn't see anything until they took a second look, they started to see it, but it still wasn't clear. It took three to five actual looks to make it out.

At first glance it looked like a prairie with a bunch of small mounds, stumps, trees, and tall grass, but if you were to look harder a couple of times you would start to see it. The mounds had little holes in them, the stumps were bigger then normal, just far away so they looked normal and appeared up close, and they were carved in some places. The trees either had bigger holes in them then usual, about the same size or bigger then owl holes, or the were very abnormally wide at the bottom, carved in areas to the shape of a door, and holes in the side, some the them showing light out. The grass still looked the same, but with the occasional ruffle that was to large to be the wind.

"I see it now!" exclaimed Austin as he pointed in the directions of the trees and stumps and mounds and grass and explained to them what was just explained to you.

"I see it now!" said Laura jumping up from the rock, accidentally kicking Eric in the back, who was sitting in front of her and the rock on the ground. Michael was sitting to Eric's right and Megan was sitting to Laura's right on the rock. Austin was standing on the left side, Hal on the right.

"Do you think they know that we're here?" asked Eric.

"I doubt it," answered Hal, "the homes stretch for about a mile in every direction."

"Do you have a place here?" asked Laura.

"Yes I do. See that tree in front of us. Look to the right until you hit the next tree. That's were a creek is. Now look down the hill to the next tree then look north of that. There's a pile of sticks there. That's my house."

"Cool," said Eric.

"Confusing," stammered Michael.

"Boring!" exclaimed Megan. "What are we going to do now?"

"Actually," said Austin, "I think we better start heading back. Well I hope we get to see you again, and if we don't, the best of wishes are to you."

"And as are to you!" said Hal, "your Majesties!" he added with a grin and a wave. The kids started to walk back the way they came. (Lucky for them Austin kept track of where they were with his outdoors skills.

"What the heck did he mean by 'your Majesties'? Is he cracked?" asked Megan with a hint of frustration in her tone.

"I really don't know, but the only thing that matters is to get back to Barruffle's house, and even more importantly, back to the Mansion. (That's Owner's house.)" said Laura.

"I'm not going back, not after what Eric had to do to her! She'll kill us!" exclaimed Megan.

"It wasn't supposed to hit her!" defended Eric.

"It shouldn't have hit anybody!" spat Michael.

"Yeah and worst of all, you dragged us into it, so now we're all in trouble!" yelled Megan.

"I just realized something," said Laura breaking the tension, "do you think that Owner's still looking for us? I mean it's been hours since we went through that wardrobe thingy, but she may still be looking for us!"

"I never thought of that," claimed Austin. At this time they were neat the Great River.

"Where did you find that gold rock thing again Eric?" asked Laura breaking minutes of silence.

"Somewhere on the other side." They kept on walking to the river, occasionally tripping over a rock that was hidden by the tall grass.

"You know what else I just realized?" asked Megan.

"What?"

"I just realized that here in, um, Narnia, there are no…"

"HELP!" came a yell.

"What was that?" exclaimed Austin with worry in his voice as they all came to a halt.

"HELP, HELP!" Came the call again.

"I think we better go see what's up!" said Laura who was starting to run in the direction that the voice was coming constantly now.

They arrived at the river and saw nothing, but still heard the call for help, so they went through a clearing and some thicket and saw what was yelling. There, lying on the ground was a dwarf with a tree trunk that wasn't that big, but still heavy enough not to lift by oneself.

"We're here!" yelled Austin as he ran down the hill with the river rapids crashing at his side. Laura tried to grab his arm but missed.

"Austin wait!" she yelled but ran after him. Megan followed with Michael and Eric close behind her.

"WOW!" exclaimed Megan when she first tried to lift it.

"What?" asked Eric dumbly.

"It's heavy! DUH!"

"Sorry!"

"Please hurry!" exclaimed the dwarf breathing heavily.

"We're trying!" exclaimed Michael in a somewhat unpromising way.

"ERIC!" yelled Laura half grunting, "get over here and help! We need all the help we can get!"

"I'm trying to find I spot to put my rock where I won't forget it!"

"Just put the stupid gold down and HELP!" she yelled back.

"Fine!" Eric took it out of his pocket. The dwarf saw it and gasped. Eric dropped it on the ground and ran to the tree to help. Shortly after they managed to get the tree trunk off of the dwarf. He didn't even say thank you to them, but he kept eyeing the spot where Eric dropped the gold. He must have been hunting when the tree fell on him because there was a bow and a case of arrows nearby.

"Are you alright?" asked Austin after a long silence. He stuck his hand out to help the dwarf up, but the dwarf knocked his hand away.

"Don't you offer to help me you filthy Son of Adam!" he exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?" asked Austin with a frightened chuckle. The dwarf said nothing for about a minute. He just stared at the kids, and then stared at the spot where the gold was, then back to the kids, then back to the spot and so on. All of the sudden he got up and started running away yelling;

"Chief! Chief! They stole the Sacred Gold, and then dropped it on the ground! Chief, Chief!" There was moment of silence then a bunch of yells that sounded like an army of about fifty nearby.

"Something tells me we better get back to Barruffle's," said Austin, "and FAST!" At that they all started running. Back up the hill and across the stream on stones nearly falling in. When they got to the other side they ran up that side and demanded that Eric put it back where he found it. When he found the spot, he put it back in and turned and ran out into the open prairie, the dry, sharp grass cutting and they're legs. After a short while Barruffle's house came into view. They ran to it and ran inside nearly knocking the door down.

"What in Aslan's name is going on?" asked Reep.


End file.
